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Sprite Promotes Gen Z Fans

In Brazil, Coca-Cola's soda brand Sprite is giving fans the chance to have their Snapchat accounts promoted on its cans.

Throughout the month of November, the RFRSH Na Lata ('Refresh on the can') campaign invites Snapchatters to submit their account details to a microsite. Winners will see their Snapcodes – proprietary QR codes that let users follow each other with a single tap in the app's camera mode – appear on millions of cans from December. They will join 15 Brazilian Snapchat influencers whose Snapcodes are already circulating on soda cans to promote the scheme.

Campaigns that encourage social media users to integrate brand products and images within their online accounts are now commonplace. But Sprite's initiative turns this on its head, giving influencers room in the brand's space instead. Snapchat is dominated by the coveted Gen Z – by giving Snapchatters access to Sprite's platform rather than the other way round, the brand speaks to the flat hierarchies and authentic modes of communication that demographic values. We further explore those ideas in our Get Real Macro Trend.

Cubocc, the Brazilian "post-advertising" agency responsible for the campaign, also cited research that said 60% of the country's smartphone users prefer messaging apps as a communication tool. Asian markets have seen similar shifts towards text-based messaging apps such as Line, Kakao Talk and WeChat. Brands that want customers to take them into these dark social systems are advised to model their behaviour after reciprocal schemes like RFRSH Na Lata.